Need Advice about PSM 1

There are dozens of threads here in the forum on what worked for others.  In addition to what you have planned, I would advise spending a set amount of time every day reading this forum. 

As for additional resources, I don't know where you are located, but you should explore seeing what libraries you can access, especially online libraries.   You can probably find e-books, especially those authored by Schwaber and Sutherland.   There is a popular book, and one I advise, by Ali that I have heard is available as a free PDF, but I can't 100% say that is valid.  You should do some searching.   

I don't have any insight into the link you provided, hopefully others can comment if it is good or not.  Be careful about using sources that are not strongly reccomended here in this forum.  For example, there is a book called something like "The Scrum Book of Knowledge" or something like that.  It is quite terrible and will cost you points on the exam. 

Mostly, read this forum and come up with a strategy.  Read the posts about how people passed, and other posts about specific uses of Scrum.  I see several posts just today that look like they came right off the exam. 

For what it is worth, here is the advice I posted in a thread a few days ago.  I achieved 78/80 on my first attempt. 

I came here to make a similar post, but perhaps by adding to the thread it will serve as a better resource for others. 

I also recently passed PSM-I.   Obviously there is some great advice in these forums, so I will try and not repeat those. 

In addition to the standards of reading the Scrum Guide and taking the Open Assessments for Scrum Master and Product Owner, I used the following resources - 

- Read the book "Software" in 30 Days

- Read the book "Scrum" by Sutherland

- Read the book "Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide" by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali (and read his associated pocket guide)

- Subscribed for one week to BostonAgileTrainings Mock tests, which I believe was $10. I did not use their training material. 

- Used the practice tests at mlapshin.com

There are other resources out there, and you really need to be careful about what you use.  For example, I had a copy of the Scrum Master Training Manual from Mplaza that listed 6 Artifacts.  A different version I had showed the correct listing of Artifacts.   So, whatever your resources, make sure they are current and up to date. 

Advice on the forum is pretty solid all the way around.   Take the open assessments until you get 100% all the time. These not only give you a feel for the format of the test, but I probably had at least 10 or 15 questions that were straight from these open assessments, so those are pretty much free points. 

I really found the best resource to be the book by Ali.  He actually tries to guide te reader into an active learning process, which is what you need to do.  Essentially, for every sentence in the Scrum Guide, you need to ask yourself "what does this mean in an applied setting, how would I actually use this?"  If you can begin to internalize that concept while reading it will take you a long ways.  Conversely, while taking a test, you invert this idea and ask "what concept in the Scrum Guide does this question speak to?"   The test is very much asking you to apply Scrum principles. 

I advise reading the Scrum Guide and Ali's book before reading the "Scrum" and "Software in 30 Days" books.  I found the utility of the latter two books to be in the application and execution of Scrum, which is much easier to understand when you have the knowledge of the construction of Scrum.  Not to mention that they are fun reads and show actual successful transformations to Scrum, which gives an added real world view. 

I also advise picking two or three sample exams and doing them until you pass with 90% or better.  However, hold one set of sample exam in reserve.   So, if you pick 3 exam sources, practice 2 of the 3 regularly.  Then, right before taking the real exam is when you want to take the final set of practice exam.  The reason is that the more you practice anything, the more you will start to learn those questions, those answers and that style of question.  So, you might be scoring very high but that could be just because you are starting to learn the right answer.  Holding one test in reserve will force you to apply knowledge in an unfamiliar setting, which is what you want before the real exam.

I also advise as you engage our learning process, start to build yourself a "1 pager" based intially on the Scrum Guide.  Sure, you can find plenty of one page slides online, but there is a part of learning that comes from your own captue and recreation of information.  After you make this one pager, keep it next to you as you read other materials and use it as a reference, making notes and updating the one pager through the process. 

As humans, we tend to prefer our learning to be specific, and fact based as opposed to concept based.  This will throw you during the real exam if you aren't careful.   You will see questions, and question patterns that look familiar but if you don't read every word, it will trip you up. 

For example, you might see a question that asks about Done for a Product Backlog Item, which might be different than Done for a Sprint Backlog item.   If you are disposed to thinking about DoD for Sprints and Sprint Backlog Items, you really need to think about this for a minute before answering. You need to read every word of a question and don't make the mistake of thinking that you recognize the question based on some key words and thus know the answer. 

Also for example, you might see a question about treatment of Non Functional Requirements and you think "oh man, I read three books and not one of them mentioned NFRs, what do I do?" Again, the answer is to apply the principles of Scrum.  I would argue that NFRs, Functional Requirements, or Whackadoo Blue Moon Chupacabra Requirements should all be treated the same way if they are delivering value to the customer. 

Finally, right before testing, re-read the Scrum Guide.  As many others have said, every word and every sentence is chosen carefully.  I did this and there were at least 3 questions on the exam that used language straight out of the Scrum Guide that I was able to recall because I had read it 10 minutes before. 

Well, that is a bit more than my 2 cents. I tried to give you some food for thought, but without revealing any testing specifics.   I hope this helps and is a unique perspective.

Hey Youssef,

yesterday I passed the PSM1 with 94% on my first attempt.

So here is what I did:

1. I read the Scrum Guide Version you mentioned several times, really several times. It is by far the most important source.

2. I did the Open Scrum Assessment several times till I scored 100% easily.

3. I also did the Sample Test you mentioned from mlpashin. It really helped too.

Further information:

I am not a native speaker eather. So make sure you have a translating program opened while doing the real test. Use it just for completely new words because the time is tight.

A colleague of mine recommended the Scrum Pocket Guide from Gunther Verheyen. But honestly I just scanned it briefly. You may read it if you never had actual practical experience with scrum.

Important: I was member of one Scrum Team / Project some time ago. This helped me to recall and to understand some things better. But if you don't have the oppertunity to join a Scrum Project it should be possible to pass the Scrum test anyway. But then you really have to know the scrum guide sentence by sentence and understand it!

It also helps to really understand the main concept of self organization. I just read the book Reinventing Organizations (not really to prepare for the test) and it helped me a lot to understand the way agility, self organization / self-management work.

And finally: The time ist tight. So use the bookmarkers in the tool to review the difficult questions at the end. I finished the test 15 minutes before time expired but I needed this time to solve my 19 markers. You really have just little time to look-up something. So just do that if you have time at the end. Have the Scrum Guide with you during the test.

Maybe interesting for you because it was not really covered in the Open Assessement and the mlapshin Sample Test:

1. All questions regarding if you have multiple Scrum Teams or multiple Products

2. All questions around the Definition of Done

Good Luck and feel free to ask questions

Best Wishes

Jannis

Dear Dave Mead,

Thanks for such a detailed explanation of how to prepare for PSM 1. I just want to confirm this.

///best resource to be the book by Ali.////

Is there a name for this book? I looked at the PSM subject areas but could not find any book with Author 'Ali.'

Thank you.

Rehim, I believe Dave meant 

"Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide" by Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali (and his associated pocket guide)

Dear Community 

Thank you for your advices , for me i'll follow Jannis Huhn advice 

So many thanks 

Regards 

YK

@ Lukasz - I got the link (https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Narrative-Exam-Guide-All-ebook/dp/B018JXYR…) now. Thank you.